Our nine-team fantasy baseball league had its draft last week, waiting until the first week of the season was completed to see who’s playing and who’s pitching.

I finished ninth out of 10 last year, but the guy who got 10th decided at the last minute not to participate this year, so I got the top pick in the draft. I took New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who scored 387 points last year, by far the most of any player.

The next closest to A-Rod was St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols with 335. He became the second pick this year.

Our league rewards points based on year-end totals for the season. Position players score for home runs, RBIs, runs, hits, batting average, on-base percentage and stolen bases, plus a few bonus categories. Starting pitchers score for wins, ERA, strikeouts, innings, shutouts and complete games. Relievers get points for saves, games and ERA.

My second pick this year was a repeat on my team, Florida Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who scored 267 points last year, the highest of any starter and one of only three above 200 points. The other two were St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter (261) and Minnesota’s Johan Santana (206). Unfortunately, Willis was pretty much all I had last year, and with Florida’s sweeping cost-cutting measures this season, I’m not sure how that will affect Dontrelle’s numbers.

I also got two of the top closers from last year, Yankee Mariano Rivera and Cleveland’s Bob Wickman. I need those guys to come up big again, since my closers last year were horrendous: San Francisco’s Armando Benitez blew out a hamstring and missed most of the season; Cincinnati’s Danny Graves got released and became a setup man; and the Chicago Cubs’ LaTroy Hawkins lost his closer’s job early in the season and got traded to the Giants, where he went back to a setup role.

There was an early run on closers in the draft, so I was happy to get two good ones, although I thought I had good ones last year, too.

The other first-round picks this year in order after A-Rod and Pujols were Santana, L.A. Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, Carpenter, L.A. Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero (my top pick last year who got injured and missed significant time), Texas shortstop Michael Young, Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira, and San Diego starter Jake Peavy.